llV INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS 



language is perfectly unobjectionable. But I must confess my ina- 

 bility to discover upon what valid grounds it can be adopted in natural 

 classification. The most extraordinary result of this division of mat- 

 ter is the exclusion of the mineral kingdom ; a kingdom, moreover, 

 which has recently been so ably studied, that its circular affinities 

 would appear to have been demonstrated*. It has been urged, indeed 

 (Horae Ent., p. 175), as a reason for excluding mineralogy from the 

 true department of natural history, that its laws depend upon che- 

 mistry ; but I do not see the force of this objection, and I have already 

 stated an objection to this binary division of a group, as being incon- 

 sistent with the theory that all natural groups are circular. 



4. In what way the mineral kingdom may be connected on one side 

 to the vegetable, and on the other to the animal, has never been pre- 

 cisely stated. Yet there are many circumstances, among which the 

 microscopic observations of Eobert Brown are not the least interesting, 

 which shew, that this affinity is highly probable, while the union of 

 the two great divisions of organised matter, strictly so termed, the 

 animal and the vegetable, is incontestible. 



5. In the Vegetable, or subtypical kingdom, botanists have long ago 

 distinguished three great divisions, namely Monocotyledones, Dicoty- 

 ledones, and Acotyledones ; but the circular affinities of these groups 

 have received no attention. 



6. In the Animal kingdom, which is unquestionably the typical 

 perfection of matter, the penetration of that distinguished zoologist, 

 whose name I have so often quoted, has detected an undeniable ten- 

 dency to a circle. " It must, however, be remembered, that M. Virey, 

 one of the most eminent zoologists of France, assuming the nervous 

 system for his basis, long since divided the animal kingdom, without 

 assigning names to them, into three sub-kingdoms f," while many 



existence of this division in nature, still less is the use of it to be despised.' — Horse Ent. And again, 

 ' Matter, whether organised or in a brute state, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, is very little if 

 at all different in itself.' — Horae Ent., p. 188. 



* * M. Ampere, as great a mathematician as chemist, has published a Classification Naturelle 

 pour les corps simples, and proved that " les corps sont tellement coordonnes l'un a l'autre, qu'ils ne 

 forment uon plus une serie mais un cercle." ' — Macleay's Letter, p. 21. 



t Kirby, Int. to Ent., iv. 362. I regret not being better acquainted with M. Virey's theory. 

 Mr. Kirby, whose words I quote, refers to ' N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat.,' ii. p. 25. 



